What is the difference between a sheriff and police department? Do they govern different things and have completely separate powers? Does one have more jurisdiction over another and what happens when it comes to committing a criminal offence?
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I can give an example for the area I live in.
I live near a city called McKinney. Within the city limits, policing is primarily the responsibility of the Mckinney Police Department.
McKinney is situated in Collin County. If you’re outside of the city limits of any town or city, the primary police force is the County Sherriff department.
The heads of both local PD and county sherriff office are elected officials. The division is a question of jurisdiction mostly in practice.
There are a lot of wrong answers in this response, simply because the US, as much as Europeans pretend it is, is not a homogeneous place. Many people are giving you the difference in their little corner of the country. There are close to 18,000 different police organizations in the US.
For police organizations in the US, there is:
73 federal agencies
50 primary state law enforcement agencies
1,733 special jurisdiction agencies
3,063 sheriff’s offices
12,501 city, county, tribal, and regional police departments
Second, in many/most places in the United States, the Sheriff and a sheriff (a deputy of the sheriff’s department) are different.
Broad strokes here. Sheriff is a County wide elected position with varied responsibilities, one of which is typically leading the sheriff’s department. (Leading can mean a lot of different things here)
The definition of “police department” is also varied, and depending on how you define it, the sheriff’s department is a police department. But I suspect you mean city police vs the sheriff’s department based on your question.
The ELI5 explanation is, sheriff’s department is just one level on the ladder of the US police system….
The none ELI5 answer is, the US has a strong tradition of local rule. The police structure is one of these, and while you can simplify it to a hierarchy, it’s more a complex flow chart of jurisdictions and responsibilities which can vary greatly and have all sorts of overlap, not just between states but also counties within states.
Here is the overarching basics, starting with the lowest “tier,” but there can be and are differences.
1. Ultra local Police Deparments: some schools, hospitals, etc. have their own police force. Sometimes independent, but also sometimes a sub-department of the city/county/state police.
2. City Police: What you are thinking of when you say police department. These are the police employeed by the city and they provide police activity within the jurisdiction of the city itself. (Tribal police also fall somewhere around here) (City can also include villages, townships, etc.) Some county’s are not populated enough and will have a county police department in addition to the sheriff’s department.
3. Sheriff’s Department: County level police department, provide police activity for the county as a whole, typically will provide everyday police activity for areas of the county not incorporate within a city with an independent city police department. The Sheriff’s department may also run a county jail, run a county wide crime lab, provide security for county courts, may or may not include the coroner. They may also assume jurisdiction if a crime crosses city lines.
4. State Police: Often styled as highway patrol, troopers, state marshals/rangers, etc. State level police department. Provides everyday police activity for state property, including the high way system. They may also run the state jails, crime labs, provide security for state level courts and goverment buildings, etc. They also will/can assume jurisdiction in circumstances where the local/county police are out of their depth, or if the local police are themselves a party to the crime.
5. Federal Police: Numerous bodies here that investigation federal level crimes and crimes that cross state lines.
Also not included in this list but are ones you might commonly see are park police, military police, game wardens, postal police, border patrol, secret service, air marshals, .. each of these might be part of a previous listed level/department or completely independent.
Further we have the US Marshals, which actually aren’t part of the executive branch, but instead a form of law enforcement officers that report directly to the court.
Each state is a little different, but usually it works like this.
County: A County may include multiple municipalities, (city, town, village, township, etc) and also “unincorporated areas”. This means areas that are not part of any Municipality.
The Sheriff typically has jurisdiction over an entire County.
Police department has jurisdiction over just their municipality.
When a Police Department exists inside a county, there is typically a relationship between the Police Department and the County Sheriff’s department and agreements of who is responsible for what.
For unincorporated areas in the County, they usually don’t have a local police department and are instead patrolled and policed by the County Sheriff.
In some rural/low-population counties, there is only a Sheriff and no local police departments.
Additionally, most Court and Jail systems are run at the County level as it’s usually more efficient than each individual Municipality having their own jail/court. The sheriff typically runs the County Jail system, and also enforces/delivers Court Orders for their County Court system.
It does vary a bit by state, but that is the general idea.
As an American, I barely understand the difference between the sheriff and police department
>What is the difference between a sheriff and police department?
You can read about sheriffs in England and Wales [here](https://privycouncil.independent.gov.uk/privy-council-office/high-sheriffs/), and Scottish sheriffs [here](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/scotland/debt-and-money/action-your-creditor-can-take/powers-of-sheriff-officers-s/).
Sheriffs serve in shrieval councils, whose boundaries used to (but not longer) match with administrative boundaries. Sheriffs have the power to enforce court orders – they can evict you, make you pay a debt, etc, if the court has so ordered. They typically have “warrant for all lawful execution”, which lets them enter your house in the business of carrying out their duty.
The police are much more common, and carry out the actual legal function of law enforcement.
> Do they govern different things and have completely separate powers?
Yes. Sheriffs are basically direct extensions of the court, while the police are extensions of the Crown and Parliament (though they, too, uphold court orders).
In more rural areas of the United States it’s pretty common for individual towns to not have their own police, or if they do it’s one or two full time employees with finite resources. So they rely on the Sheriff’s office which is organized at the county level to include several neighboring communities.
In the same manner it’s impractical for every individual town/city to have their own courts, judges, prison, ect, so those services also tend to get organized at the county level. Sheriff’s office also tends to do most of the heavy lifting for these systems.
In more developed areas the responsibilities trend towards the latter, while in rural areas they do a lot more basic policing.
From my understanding, Sheriff’s deputies and police officers have the same powers. The jurisdiction of sheriff’s deputies are larger. They operate in jails, courthouses, and other establishments that are under county control (not city)
The purpose of sheriff’s deputies are to operate in places within the county that do not belong to any city
States are divided into counties, and every county has a sheriff. The sheriff is an elected position, so every couple years they have an election and sometimes there’s a new sheriff elected.
The sheriff may “deputize” folks, and imbue them with police powers, and forms a police agency called the “sheriff’s department” where the sheriff and their deputies work as cops. The elected county board of supervisors typically levies a county-wide tax to fund the sheriff’s activities. They also protect the county court house usually, and the county jail.
For rural counties, with small 500 population villages and stuff, the sheriff and deputies is all they need. No police department necessary.
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But when towns get bigger and turn into cities — with thousands or hundreds of thousands of residents — the city will form its own government and elect a City Council, and levy property taxes onto all owned property within city limits.
If/when the policing needs of a growing city exceed the capabilities of the county sheriff, the city government will form and fund a police department, and hire a police chief.
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The essential difference is that sheriff’s are elected and answer to the whole county, and are funded by the county government.
Whereas police departments and police chiefs are hired, by the elected city council (or in some states hired/fired by an independent “police commission” appointed by the city council) and are funded by the city government.
I’ll add a slightly Australian (and probably very Anglo-friendly) flavour to this. The police are responsible for enforcing the law and bringing you to court. The sheriff is responsible for enforcing the law on any debts imposed on that court process.
It’s different in each state. In MA the sheriffs are basically responsible for frogmarching you into court and railroading you into jail. They can probably pull you over for speeding but they don’t because they’re busy carting busloads of your deviant friends.
Making up ticky-tack motor infractions and planting narcotics in your car is up to local PD on surface roads and Staties on highways (including smaller surface highways). Transit cops can also harass you for traffic infractions in their areas, but they wouldn’t be the ones to investigate you knocking over a liquor store. They’ll use you for a kicking circle if you try to escape in the subway though.
In many other states the Sheriffs will absolutely make an example of you for stuff like jaywalking. So just don’t do any of that stuff.
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